Sphere - Esfera

Sci-Fi, Thriller

Dustin Hoffman	Dr. Norman Goodman
Sharon Stone	Beth Halperin
Samuel L. Jackson	Harry Adams
Peter Coyote	Barnes
Liev Schreiber	Ted Fielding
Queen Latifah	Fletcher
Marga Gomez	Jane Edmunds
Michael Keys Hall	Government Official
Marga Gómez	Jane Edmunds
Huey Lewis	Helicopter Pilot
Bernard Hocke	Seaman
James Pickens Jr.	O.S.S.A. Instructor

Director	Barry Levinson
Producer	Michael Crichton; Barry Levinson
Writer	Michael Crichton; Kurt Wimmer

Barry Levinson directed this $100+ million adaptation of Michael Crichton 's science fiction novel about the investigation of a half-mile-long spacecraft sitting on the South Pacific ocean floor. Government functionary Barnes ( Peter Coyote ) assembles a crack scientific team — psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman ( Dustin Hoffman ), who wrote a presidential report on alien contact; biochemist Beth Halperin ( Sharon Stone ), once involved romantically with Goodman; mathematician Harry Adams ( Samuel L. Jackson ); and astrophysicist Ted Fielding ( Liev Schreiber ). After descending a thousand feet, they set up housekeeping at their underwater Habitat base, suit up, and enter the craft, finding evidence that it's a U.S. ship from the future. However, the craft's cargo of a shimmering, golden sphere is definitely alien. After Harry contrives to enter the sphere, Norman notes his odd behavior. When the Habitat computer system receives an email message from the sphere ("I am happy"), it's not long before the messages from this entity take a threatening turn ("I will kill you all"), triggering fears to surface along with violent attacks to the Habitat. The film is divided into chapters, such as "The Ride Down," "The First Exchange," and "The Monster." Shot on soundstages at the abandoned Mare Island Naval Shipyard (Vallejo, California), the effects combine animation, miniatures, prosthetics, animatronics, and digital images. Ed Asner reads the Sphere audiobook. — Bhob Stewart